Fall from Grace
by Gywneth
Summary: Sirius escapes from Azkaban. My first fic, be nice!
1. Cold Walls

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Fall from Grace

By Aviendha

Authors Note: OK now, being the person responsible for this I feel you poor readers deserve an explanation. Yes, I know it's about a 9.0 on the corny cheese-o-meter, but please try and send no flames. It's my first time writing a finfic (that's right, start running). So pleeaassse try and be nice. I wanted to write something about Sirius Black, my favorite character, and I finally worked up the courage to post it, so here it is. 

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"In a moment we lost out minds here 

And dreamt the world was round 

A million mile fall from grace

Thank God we missed the ground" 

-Live, run to the Water 

A storm was coming. Despite the lack of windows or even a hairline crack in the wall to connect him to the outside world, Sirius Black could sense it coming. He was sprawled on his back over the filthy pallet he used for sleeping. Feeling the unearthly wave of depression as a dementor glided past his door, he fought off the urge to transform into a dog. There had been an unusual amount of activity around him this morning and he preferred that no one discover his little secret. 

This much liveliness in Azkaban could mean only one thing. The Minster of Magic's yearly inspection. Had it been a year already? 

He had stopped keeping track of the time when he had given up hope that he would ever get out. In the first few weeks of his imprisonment, he had hopped against hope that the mistake would be realized and that they would understand they had gotten the wrong man. It had never happened. Slowly, over the months, he had lost hope. Then he had started to try to kill himself. He tried everything he could think of. Unfortunately, there weren't many options open to him. He tried starving himself by not eating, but found it impossible when food was placed before him, no matter how revolting. In a fit of despair he tried banging his head against the wall. He even tried to strangle himself, but all that happened was he lost conciseness and wasted all that energy for nothing. No, there was no escaping Azkaban. Not for anyone.

It was a horrible place beyond description, Azkaban. It was a huge fortress cut into the rock on a island just off the mainland. From that land, it looked like the top of some huge mountain that had been nipped of and placed on an island. It was guarded by the most vile creatures on the planet: dementors. Soul-suckers themselves, they caused the halls and corridors to reek with a threat worse then death.

But the dementors were not the worst part of living in Azkaban, Sirius thought. It was the company he kept, the people he was exposed to. He was in the middle of the maximum-security hall, surrounded by the world's worst criminals, most of them having past been close assistants of Voldemort's. It was terrible, having insane, evil people his only connection to the human race. What was worse, some of them (the ones who were once more deeply involved with Voldemort), _knew_. Knew that he was innocent. They had known all along, the whole story behind Peter and the Fidelous Charm, but couldn't and wouldn't help him. People knew that he was innocent but it did nothing for him. That, above all, almost caused Sirius to go insane. 

Today, though, was different. Today, for some few minutes, the hall would clear of the dementor guards as the minister came by. That's what was happening now; they were all leaving. Sirius got to his feet and went to the small, bared window at the front of his cell. He waited. Then he heard the door open. He watched as Cornileius Fudge and the Azkaban supervisor, Valon Sandar made their way down the hall, stopping occasionally to peer into a cell. 

As they walked closer to him, Sirius's eyes were drawn to a copy of _The Daily Prophet_ tucked under Fudge's arm. How long had he been in here? He wondered what had happened while he was stuck in this damn prison? As they drew closer, he spoke up.

"Minster Fudge?" It came out more of a croak, so he tried it again. 

"Minster Fudge?" It worked better this time. Fudge drew closer, trying to recognize the man behind the bars. 

"Sirius Black", Sirius said helpfully. 

"Ah, Black", Fudge said, drawing back slightly. 

"Minster, I was wondering… if you are done with it… could I have your paper?" Sirius asked hopefully. 

Sandar frowned, but Fudge stepped forward again. "I don't see what harm it could possibly do. Open the door, Valon."

Sandar grudgingly took out his wand and performed the spell to open the door a crack. Fudge slipped the paper through. Almost before it had left his hand, Sirius was walking back to his bed, unfolding the paper, pausing only to mutter a low "thank you" over his shoulder. Once he returned to his bed, he began devouring the paper. He noticed the date and did the math. Almost twelve years!! It felt like twenty. 

With his newfound voice, he flipped through, muttering to himself and taking it all in. "Let's see, muggle discovered enchanted wizard's hat… new and used wands for sale.. lost Glyph, answers to the name of 'Lleu', if found, please return to…Ministry of Magic Employee Scoops Grand Prize… Sirius read the caption on the last one and glanced down at the picture. A large, red headed family waved back at him from in front of a pyramid. 

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Ministry of Magic Employee

Scoops Grand Prize

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Author Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, has won the annual **Daily Prophet** **Grand Prize Galleon Draw.**

A delighted Mr. Weasley told the **Daily Prophet**, "We will be spending the gold on a summer holiday in Egypt, where out eldest son, Bill, works as a curse breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank."

The Weasley family will be spending a month in Egypt, returning for the start of the new school year at Hogwarts, which five of the Weasley children currently attend. 

As his eyes moved from face to face, they came to rest on one of the younger boys. 

No, not on the boy. On what was on his shoulder.

Sirius froze. Clinging to the boys shoulder was a small gray rat. On its front paw it was missing a toe. This wasn't just any rat. He thought back to all the times he had seen that rat. To the last time he had seen it. 

Peter. Peter Pettigrew. 

He tried to control his rage. Rage at being trapped, helpless, rage at the great injustices that had been done to him, rage at the man he had thought was his friend, but at the first offer of personal gain had destroyed everything Sirius held dear. He took a deep breath and forced himself back to Earth. Think, he told himself. The caption had said the boy would be going back to Hogwarts. Hogwarts… Peter's plan suddenly clicked in Sirius's head. Harry. Harry, his best friend's son, must be in Hogwarts now. Peter was waiting for Voldemort to regain power again. When he did, Peter was perfectly positioned to take action and deliver Harry to the dark lord at the first hint of his returning force. 

Sirius surpassed a scream. Peter, out there, free and unknown, ready to help should the Dark Lord return to power and take revenge. Sirius, stuck in a living hell, with now way out. Silently, he fought back his rage and rising panic. He just needed to get out. Get out, escape, and then he could warn everyone, save Harry. He almost laughed at that. Escape? Out of the worst feared prisons in the world? Past the dementors? Past the bars? Past the ocean? 

Yup, thought Sirius grimly. Past it all. 

*****

It was late in the night. Or at least Sirius thought it was, he couldn't be sure. After cooling down from the previous outburst over the paper, Sirius had been able to think more clearly. Enough to devise a plan, anyway. If you could call it that, he had thought, dejectedly. After mulling over his situation he had watched Fudge and Sandar come back through the hall. He had thought, as they walked by, should he try and tell Fudge? Warn him something was up? But he knew the answer before finishing the question. He didn't believe him before, why would he believe him now?

So he just stood, watching, as they walked to the door at the end of the hall. 

"Hurry, Minister, you must leave before the storm breaks", Sandar said, fumbling for his wand to open the door at the end of the hall. Sirius listened carefully; this was important.

"Exitus sic!!" 

The door swung open and Sandar and Fudge disappeared through it. He heard it close and the muffled closing spell. Now he had nothing to do but wait.

That had been hours ago. He had crouched in the corner by the door since then, still waiting. He felt the dementors take their places again and the temperature dropping as night fell. He could feel the storm getting closer.

Then, just when he thought this might be one of those nights when the prisoners wouldn't be feed, he heard the door open and the food cart being wheeled in. He listened as a dementor walked to each cell individually, handing out small portions of water and some indeterminable substance in a bowl. Twelve years in Azkaban and he still didn't know what that brown stuff he choked down every morning and night was. 

His muscles tensed as he heard the soft shuffling footsteps of the dementor carrying his dinner approach. No, not tonight. It wouldn't be his dinner tonight. If everything went smoothly he would never have to eat that stuff again. If everything went badly he would never get to eat that stuff again either. 

Now, now was the time, the bar across his door was being raised. Sirius inched closer to the door and got ready to end it all, one way or another.

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Authors note: Sorry about the little cliffhanger. I'll continue this and make it into a series if the reviews are good, so please make use of the little box at the bottom of the screen and tell me what ya think. Constructive criticism only please, no flames. Thanks for taking the time to read! Double thanks if you take the time to review!!

Disclaimer: I'm not making any money off of this (that would be neat though…). All these characters belong to the wonderful J.K. Rowling of course. I have merely borrowed them to entertain my own sick mind. Oh, except for Valon Sandar, he's mine, but I don't really want him.****

The song Run to the Water belong to Live, and Lleu the glyph belongs to Ebony Edison, if you happen to find him. 


	2. Waves and Stars

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Fall from Grace: Part

Two

By Aviendha

Authors Note: OK, here is the second part. Yes, I know we all know what's gonna happen, but I had to start somewhere, and if the reviews keep up I'll bring this up to Sirius either getting free or getting caught. Everyone's done that, too, but I'll make a try at it anyway. I highly recommend that you read 'Fall from Grace: Part One', before this. Anyway, I tried to make this second part more interesting then the first, but I'm not sure if I pulled it off or not. Anything italicized is either Sirius thinking or a flashback; you'll know which. Enjoy. And please, please, please, I beg you, review!!!!!!!

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(please?)

Sirius Black took a deep breath and tried to calm his shaking limbs. He was in dog form, crouching in the darkness of his cell. He'd been waiting for it and now was the time. The dementor was coming, he knew, and now was the time. _Succeed or fail_, he thought, _this is the time_. Then, with a protesting creak, the door opened. 

He bolted. 

He didn't stop to look back and see if the dementor had sensed his escape, or if any of the other prisoners had seen him, but keep running toward the door. He got there and skidded to a halt. Now for the spell. He didn't have a wand, but he had always been rather good at minor spells without one. 

He drew himself up to full canine height and focused all his energy on the small release latch on the door. Since he didn't want to make any unnecessary noise and alert either the dementors or the prisoners, he decided it would be best not to speak. He formed the words and spoke them clearly in his head, envisioning the door opening for him as it would for anyone with a wand. 

::Exitus sic!!!::

The door slid opened and he bounded through. But whatever happiness or satisfaction he might have felt at getting out of the cell and through the door was pretty much demolished at the sight that meet him on the other side. 

In his impatience to get out and stop Peter, he'd somehow forgotten the inner architecture of Azkaban. It was a maze full of twists and turns leading every which way. He remembered the day he had first been led to his cell; going along a fifteen minute walk down twisting corridors and up spiral stairs. The room he was in now was a huge cavern about eight stories high. It was dome-shaped, with Azkaban's classic gray rock walls and about ten different doors leading in every direction. Which way? Sirius walked out to the middle of the room and sat down. 

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This is impossible, he thought, hopelessness and frustration overcoming him. _I could wander around in here for days, and even if I never got caught, could end up right back in this room- _

He moved to get up when a wet splat of something hit him square in the nose. He looked up. Way up. In the ceiling was a very tiny grated window, showing off a bit of sky outside and looking pathetically small against the monstrous cavern. The clouds thinned and parted to one side, unveiling three stars and part of the nearly full moon. Sirius stood, transfixed, even as his fur continued to get wet from the slow drizzle coming in. It had been so long since he had seen the sky. Memories came, unbidden, of what this moon used to mean to him and his friends. Especially one of his friends. He lost himself in the remembrance of the past as he gazed upward at the open sky. 

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"It's alright, Moony", James Potter soothed, as another scream cut through the air. "Time to change", he said over his shoulder to the other two boys standing behind him. 

Sirius stood with two of his best friends, James and Peter Pettigrew in the Shrieking Shack. Before them, lying on the bed, was Remus Lupin, his other friend. It was that time between sunset and nightfall, and the full moon was just starting to rise. 

The boys, one with jet-black hair and a smaller one with light brown, nodded solemnly. They both bowed their heads, as if thinking deeply. Then, the black-haired one, Sirius, suddenly seemed to flash with some inner light, and where he was before stood a huge dog. A similar flash from near the bed announced that James had done the same and taken stag form. Peter stood in concentration with sweat rolling down his forehead for so long that Sirius leaned over to whisper "Hurry it up, Wormtail…" as another cry echoed throughout the shack. Finally, with another flash of light, Pettigrew was gone and a small gray rat crouched on the floor in his place. Sirius leaned back in relief. 

Another shriek, louder this time, brought all attention back to the bed. Remus screamed again as the pain of the transformation shot through his body. Sirius turned away. This was the fifth time. The fifth time he had seen this happen, and he still couldn't stand to watch. He fixed his gaze on a split in the wood on the opposite side of the room. When the cries abated, and he turned around, he saw the huge creature, his friend Remus, the werewolf, rear his head and let out a howl that sent shivers down Sirius' spine. 

The rest of the night, and into early morning, they spent galloping across countryside, through forests, over streams, and dangerously close to some villages and towns. One stag, one dog, one rat, and one werewolf, on a full rampage. 

And what I wouldn't give for just one more night like that, he thought. 

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He stood, indulging in the beauty of the sky and the memories until the clouds closed up and one particularly large and disruptive raindrop hit him between the eyes.

Coming unwillingly back into the present he cursed himself. Sitting here, daydreaming about times long gone, people long dead. 

And people soon to be dead. 

New resolve had planted itself firmly in his head and taken root there. He took another look around. Which door? Which way? He needed help. His eyes moved back up to the window in the ceiling as he called for his friend, something he hadn't done in a long time. Canine lips spoke the words in a soft whisper, asking for a miracle. Sirius had stopped believing in miracles a long time ago, but James had never let him down before. 

"James, I need your help. He's still free, and he wants to hurt your son. He wants to hurt Harry. I can stop him. Make him pay for what he did. I can do it, and I will, but I need your help. I need to know what way to go. Help me." 

He looked around. No answer. Of course no answer. But then, something ruffled his fur to his right, making him shiver. A breeze, and not one from the window. He ran into it, finding its source: the crack beneath one of the doors. The way out.

He performed the opening spell and speeded away toward freedom. 

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Well, not quite, he thought_, _as he stood gazing out into the sea. He stood on a rock, at least on the side of the island he knew to face land. He could see nothing over the raging waves. The storm had come, fast and furious. Waves taller then he, had he been in human form crashed against the rocky shore. _Wonderful timing, Sirius, you idiot,_ he scolded himself. 

He had followed the passage of the door up and out. He had taken many wrong turns, and had had to hide more then once from someone passing by before he was out, but he had always felt the strong sea breeze lead him up one passage in the end. 

The wrong turns and hidings had cost him hours, though. He could have been discovered a long time ago. The officials could have already been notified and the search started. The fist place they would look would obviously be Azkaban, and all of it, including the shore to see if he was still on it. So he had to get off. Now. 

It was a long way to shore. He might as well begin. He looked critically at the roaring waves. Then over his shoulder at the towering gray walls of Azkaban. He turned back around to the waves with a shudder. What he lay before him couldn't possibly be any worse then what he left behind. 

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Good, Sirius. he told himself mentally_. Keep that thought in mind._

And with that, he ran forward and dove into the sea.

* * * *

It was morning. Along the beach waves lapped gently at the sand. At one end, something stirred. A huge mound of seaweed groaned and sat groggily up. 

Sirius woke up to find the sun blaring a late morning's welcome directly into his eyes. He closed them and gathered his thoughts. Suddenly, as last nights adventures hit him hard, he stood bolt upright and looked around. He'd made it! 

After trying to swim for nearly a hour he'd given up in utter exhaustion and let the waves carry him as he just focused on staying above water. Somewhere between there and here, he'd lost consciousness. He was starved, thirsty, half-drowned, had no idea where he was, and was covered from nose to tail in green sticky seaweed, but he had made it! And he was going to take his revenge. 

Ah, yes, revenge. It was time to go find Peter now and make him pay. Ohh, how he would pay. His hate at his one time friend almost surprised him for a moment, but he brushed it away. It was true, he wanted nothing more then to kill Peter. To protect Harry. 

To avenge James, his best friend, who in his whole life had never let Sirius down, and even in death didn't seem to miss a beat. 

To avenge Lily, sweet Lily, who had given her life to save her son. 

And to avenge himself, stuck in that damn prison for twelve years, alone and friendless. Yes, he would pay. Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but he would pay. 

Giving himself one last shake, Sirius headed off into the forest, alone, as always, with his thoughts.

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Authors Note:Alright, there it is. Tell me what ya think. Review. I'm gonna keep writing annoying little review messages until you do. Really. Better do it. Anyway, hoped you liked it. It was written **_very_** early in the morning when I was half (OK, almost) asleep, so sorry about any mistakes. Thanks for reading!!!!!

oh, yeah, wait a minute…

Disclaimer: all characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I do not own any of the characters, so don't sue, there's not much to take anyway…


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